One Week in Paradise

Today marks one week since I’ve been at Nelson’s Resort in Crane Lake living a life outside of my boxes. I am covered in welts and scabs and bites from a variety of bugs and critters. I live in a small single bedroom with a shared bathroom and walk about a hundred yards to my night job tending bar with a view of the dock and general store. I’ve spent my days driving a little over two miles up Nelson Road to a parking spot on a snowmobile trail, then walking back down the road to the License Plate Path, which has proven to be the easiest access point so far to get to M&M Hill.

The internet access is spotty and I have no cell service here. In some places, though, my phone picks up the wifi pretty well and I’ve been able to post to Instagram and Facebook. There is so much to discover up here that it is hard to see it all, hard to share it all. At the bar, people keep saying, “oh, you’re the rock climber, I know where there’s some rock you might want to see”. Some of it sounds like places Jeff Engel has long since discovered, some have been rocks I’ve been on before which, when I told one guy about my Fourth of July climbing last year, he responded, “I have pictures of you! We were passing by and stopped to watch for a while.” But, some of it is sure to be new. Picnic Beach, for example, was described as a campsite with some rock up the hill, “don’t know if it’s what you’re looking for or not”. Oh, it was.

I feel a responsibility to share all this information as it is happening, but I can’t do that. I’ll continue to post on Instagram and Facebook on a regular basis, those are easy updates. Bigger posts, Mountain Project updates, those are going to take me some time. I’ll get there though. I’m taking notes on what I’m doing and what I’m finding as I go along. I have more pictures than I can possibly upload with internet speeds here. In time, this information will make it’s way out there.

Nelson’s Resort is going to become a climbing destination. Much like Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, this will be a place where people come to camp and climb and get away for a weekend or longer. It is not currently that place. But it is primed to be. For now, I’m going to continue to trek into the woods in search of bug bites, welts, and scabs. Along the way, some routes will be developed, some boulders established, and, undoubtedly, more crags discovered.

A big THANK YOU to all the people who supported my bolting fund campaign. I owe you all a debt of gratitude for being a part of this adventure.